Tuesday, February 17, 2009

D. This article in Forbes says it's Greensboro, which landed at No. 4 on its list of America's Emptiest Cities.

The ranking is based on fourth-quarter info from the Census Bureau, looking at rental and homeowner vacancies in the nation's 75 largest metropolitan statistical areas. The Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord MSA ranks No. 15, tied with Cincinnati.

Not surprisingly, Detroit ranks No. 2. But No. 1 this year is Las Vegas, the recently booming Western gambling mecca.

And Asheboro, home of the N.C. Zoo (see zoo lions depicted at right), hit Forbes' list of the Fastest-Dying Towns, landing at No. 4, behind Kokomo, Ind. That measure looked at income growth, the rate of domestic in-migration, the change in poverty and the percentage of the population with a bachelor's degree or higher for places 20,000 to 65,000 population. And there's no stimulus money available for zoos. They're among the things (swimming pools and aquariums are others) specifically ineligible for stimulus money. Geez.

But there's hope for other N.C. cities. Look for Ken Lewis, now that his pay is limited to $500K, to be house hunting in the Capital City, City of Oaks, our very own Raleigh, which hit No. 2 on Forbes' list of Best Cities to Live on $500,000.

You won't pay for it, but you have no problem reading it for free and blessing (hah!) us with your comments. Nice. I'll lay you some pretty good odds that his pay WILL be limited in the very near future. Want to take that bet?

Hey, the fact they give it away for free just means I can keep up with the latest CCCP article.

As to Lewis' pay limitations, I'd take that bet. I think BAC is sitting in the cat birds seat now as the only real full service national bank. WFC isn't focused on that and C is divesting. When the economy improves, and it will, BAC is going to be in a great position. However, I suspect they will be HQ'd in NYC or DC by then.

Perhaps Asheboro's downward sprial will reverse itself slowly. During the economic downturn, many N.C. folks and others in the southeast might forego vacations to far-flung realms and look closer to home. The N.C. Zoo should be a major draw, and especially now that Asheboro has alcohol sales (the lack of which definitely did hurt business and tourism), we can hope that Asheboro, seat of my native Randolph County, can begin a new rise. Randolph Co. has really been hard hit with the great decline in textile and furniture manufacturing.

Provisioned within the stimulus bill is a salary cap for executives of any bank that receives federal money through the TARP program. Instead of taking home millions, the top brass will be limited to $500,000 in total annual pay. Sounds like justice, doesn't it? It's not.

In fact, an outrageous loophole will allow bank executives to take home tens of millions of dollars thanks to taxpayer intervention.

It's no surprise that Asheboro is dying. That is one of the most insular, backwards, cliquish, good ol' boy towns in this state. Finally allowing liquor sales is a step in the right direction, but if the locals would quit acting like it's still the '50's, they might get some people back.

The great mistake of our economy is that we have focused too long in eliminating lowly paid positions via automation, then falsely claiming we are making businesses more efficient and competitive. For example, recall the days of full service gas stations, friendly bank tellers and supermarket bag boys? They’re gone or going. Just what did we benefit by eliminating those low-level, low-paying jobs?

If we really want to have efficient businesses, especially large ones, we need to prod some computer geeks into automating the role of executive-level management. That’s where the big money – and big savings – really is. I look forward to the marketing of “Windows Executive Office 2009", a product that will use the latest database and artificial intelligence methods to replace those multi-million dollar CEOs and CFOs on the 50th floor.

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About Mary and The Naked City blog

Mary Newsom is an Observer associate editor and op-ed columnist who's been covering growth, neighborhoods, urban design, sustainable development and related topics since 1995. In "The Naked City" you'll read her take on those topics and others.